This War has Burnt me to Ash
by AndInTheEnd
Summary: Starts at end of ChrisCrossed. Storyline will be SLIGHTLY different but the characters mostly the same. Someone else will come back from the future friend or foe? and it will be a revealation fic. Hopefully about 25k by the end.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** So this is just a preview to the story. Sorry it is so short, I will definitely be uploading much longer chapters in the future. After this moment the storyline will be branching off and Chris's character will be changing a little bit. I really loved this moment because it showed a very different side of Chris. He was supposed to have grown up in a war zone, alone, because his brother took over the world but a lot of times in the show he seems to be very careless which would probably get him killed in the future so I'm going make Chris a little bit harder but still the good guy/ hero.

**Disclaimer: **This is the one time I will say this in my story but it goes for all the chapters. I do not own the television series Charmed nor anything related to it and any similarity to other fan-fiction stories or authors is completely coincidental or accidental.

He could feel the fire inside of him burning everything he was to ash. She was the last one left, the last one alive and not she was dead, gone forever. Leo and the sisters had found out one of his many secrets and in a way her death was the price he paid for not only keeping those secrets but for revealing one too. This was the price for not being better, for not knowing that Wyatt would find a way to get to him, even here. He had been a fool to for so many reasons but he had assumed safety and perhaps that was the most foolish mistake he had ever made. Because here, in the past, where murder was a crime and the threat of death wasn't a fear felt in every moment, what was there to be afraid of? Leo was right when he said that trust goes both ways but no longer could he trust. He thought that lesson had been ingrained in him after his mother's death, or his aunts' or his cousins' but once again those he trusted had betrayed him, never again. As he walked down the attic steps he once again locked away that piece of him that had escaped his heart when he came back to the past to save the worlds. Stopping at the entrance to Piper's bedroom, he leaned against the doorway, looking in on the happy child. Whenever he saw this little boy it was hard to see the tyrant he would grown into but for once he could look past the innocence and see the blood on his hands, Bianca's blood. Chris had seen it, lived it, this innocent child would destroy everything. And from the coldest place inside of him, Chris found the will to say, "If I can't save you, I swear to God I'll stop you." With one last glace Chris walked away, there was work to be done.

**A/N As far as reviews go, I appreciate them and they motivate me to write faster but I do not depend on them and I will continue writing this story without them.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N **Welcome to chapter two. I have been updating fast but I might not be able to keep this rate up. I will at least update once a week though. The story is starting up slow but I promise that the next chapter will have more action or at least more interesting developments.

'Good guys 1, evil demons 0," thought Chris with a smirk as he saw the last one burst into flames and disappear. "I knew it was a set up," he muttered as he walked through the exit of the cave. He was supposed to meet one of his less than reliable informants here but as soon as he didn't show, lower level slime-ball that he is, Chris knew something was up. It had been almost too easy to set his own trap before he was ambushed. It was time he reinforced his earlier lesson with his snitch.

Stalking out of the low level dimly lit cave, he considered his top two options. He needed to get his information from Drux, along with teaching him a lesson, but he need to orb back to the manor at some point today too. The sisters had forgiven him for lying about the whole half-witch thing. Truly he thought it was less about forgiveness and more about the fact that he didn't make them demon hunt as much anymore, now that he could openly use his powers.

This meant that, in theory, he could go there whenever but things were still strained between them. None of them had really trusted Chris before Bianca came but now they seemed to get angry at the slightest hint that he wasn't telling them the whole truth.

Hiding his identity wasn't really a new thing for him but having them question his every move was. How could he be expected to save Wyatt if he couldn't even vanquish a demon without the sisters and Leo objecting to everything?

'Drux it is then,' he thought. He would go visit the demon's regular haunts, maybe talk to a few of his friends and then Chris would show him that he wasn't so easily fooled. White and blue lights lit the caves as Chris orbed out with a familiar jingle.

At the same time, Paige was dealing with a moral dilemma and it revolved around the one and only Chris Perry. He kept too many secrets and there were too many lies for her to get past. How was she supposed to trust him like a witch was supposed to trust her white lighter? How was she supposed to protect her nephew from the great future evil if Chris wouldn't tell them anything?

As an aunt it was her job to protect Wyatt and as a witch it was her job to protect the innocent, which was Wyatt. So here she was, spell in hand and ready to cast, but still hesitating. Because she was a good witch and she couldn't help feeling like she was doing this to satisfy her own curiosity about the future. And if that were true then the whole personal gain thing could backfire right in her face.

Not to mention the invasion of privacy if she did this to her neurotic white lighter/ witch. She was still undecided so Paige took the spell, meant to reveal secrets through memories, and went to find Phoebe.

"No Paige. No. No. No," Phoebe said loudly.

It had only taken Paige 10 minutes to explain her plan to Phoebe but they had been sitting in the conservatory for over half-an-hour and Phoebe was not changing her mind.

"But Phoebe," Paige started again, "You know we cant trust him! He has lied to us and manipulated us, hell he split up Leo and Piper! For all we know he isn't even here to protect Wyatt."

"Look Paige, I love Wyatt, you know that, but it isn't right to do this. I won't agree and we both know Piper won't either. You haven't been doing this as long as we have, but personal gain? That is something we cannot mess with, not for a chance of a possible threat to Wyatt. If we had any kind of proof than _maybe_ I _might_ consider it. But we don't know anything and all Chris has done is help us. There has to be another way to find out what his is hiding, maybe a non-magical way."

Paige huffed and looked away, not wanting to accept defeat.

"What if we find a non-magical way to get proof, to find out what he is hiding, and then we can try my solution?" asked Paige after a moments hesitation.

"Maybe," replied Phoebe thoughtfully. "Well Leo has already tried following him and Chris always seemed to know when he was being followed and he made sure not to get caught doing anything. And there won't be anything that Daryl could find out, he is from the future so there won't be any information there."

"Oh come on," Paige cried, frustrated, "I was a social worker for how long? And you have a psychology degree and we can't even figure out if someone is lying?"

"That's it Paige, you're a genius!" cried Phoebe, throwing her arms around her younger sister.

"I know I am," replied Paige with typical humour, "But can you explain to me why?"

"What is one of the main things you learned as a social worker? How to read body language, tone of voice, all of that. And I learned the same things, we need to psychoanalyze like we never have!"

Paige looked at her sceptically, "And how will that tell us if he is a threat or if we can trust him?"

"Well do you have a better idea," Phoebe replied tersely, "At the very least we can see how he reacts around different people or topics, especially Wyatt. At least we could find out what he's like when he lies, so we can tell the difference from now on. We don't really have very many options do we? How do you, non-magically, research a white lighter/ witch from the future?"

"Good point," replied Paige thoughtfully. "How are we going to do this?"

"Well we can't both watch him all the time, he'll get suspicious," said Phoebe.

"I guess we can just play it by ear," replied Paige, now set on Phoebe's plan. "We can both subtly watch him at the same time, even if he does get suspicious there isn't much he can do. We aren't actually doing anything wrong."

"Perfect," replied Phoebe with a smirk, "Now where is that boy?"

**A/N Reviews and ideas appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N **Words cannot describe how sorry I am for leaving you all for so long. I want to thank everyone for the reviews and follows. Real life decided to come and beat me over the head with a bat so I have been out of commission for a while but I am back now and it should be a permanent thing. If it isn't then next time I shall post and let you all know. Long winded apology over so now on with the story.

Said boy was currently still in the underworld, dealing with the one of the many problems that always seemed to crop up in his life. He was trying to hide his irritation with the fool who insisted on trying his patience but he was very close to losing it.

"Come on now Drux," Chris drawled in a teasing tone, "Why did you set me up? You didn't really think that something as simple as that would kill me did you?"

Drux, still pinned to the dank cave wall, just shook his head. His eyes were filled with horror and Chris couldn't tell whether he was still denying that he knew anything or whether he was simply denying the entire situation.

"You still owe me my information," Chris's eyes narrowed dangerously, "And I will get what you owe me, one way or the other." His tone was still light and teasing, giving Chris and air of menacing insanity.

Drux once again shook his head, almost like a reflex, and Chris let the smile melt off of his face. Something had scared Drux worse than Chris had and that made him all the more determined to figure out what he was hiding.

Using his telekinesis, Chris once again drew the athame floating nearby towards Drux's chest. The demon's shirt was already torn to shreds, deep and shallow cuts littered his torso and blood, a richer crimson than any human body had ever held, dripped and flowed down towards the rocky floor of the cave. The blood was visible even through the dark coloured clothing and Chris's carefree air made himself question his sanity, not for the first time.

"I wonder if you can throw fireballs with no hands? I mean I have never seen a demon without hands but considering the nature of magic it should be possible right?" Chris looked expectantly at Drux, clearing requesting an answer.

"You crazy son of a bitch," Drux replied with a disgusted and fearful twist to his words. He was angry yet terrified and this child had him pinned to the wall of his own hideout like some helpless… witch.

'Ah now we are getting somewhere,' Chris thought. Aloud he said, "So he speaks, lets find out if he can scream." The last word came out with almost a hiss and without a hint from Chris the athame spun through the air and sliced through bone, muscle and skin, permanently detaching the demon's hand. Nothing could be heard of the action, no grinding of bone nor tearing of tendon, even the noise signalling the drop of the hand was overcome by the screech of the demon. And yet, through all this, Chris did not flinch, no movement or sound betrayed his calm demeanour as he watched Drux writhe in pain before him.

Now let's try again," Chris said as the knife raised beside him once again.

"Two weeks Phoebe! It's been two weeks and we still have next to nothing," Paige cried. She was frustrated with their lack of progress and now she was starting to get frustrated with her sister too. Phoebe still refused to even consider Paige's original plan, even playing the nephew card hadn't gotten her more than a withering glare.

"That isn't completely true," replied Phoebe, trying to keep calm even as her own ire was raised.

Paige abruptly stopped pacing across the floor and plopped down onto the couch, folding her arms in a gesture of defiance. "Yes it is. I don't know why you refuse to believe this but Chris's secrets could get us all hurt and he is so damn secretive that there is a good chance we will never find any of them out."

"We don't need to know his secrets," huffed Phoebe, finally giving into her exasperation, "As much as I want to know everything about the future, in this case it may be better if we don't know. He said the future was bad, really bad," Phoebe held up a hand to forestall her sister's protest, "And I know we don't know if he is lying, but on the off chance that he is telling the truth maybe we shouldn't know. Maybe all we really need to figure out is whether he is lying about the things that he does say and whether or not he wants to hurt Wyatt or the Charmed Ones. Anything else is personal gain and that never _ever_ ends well." By this point Phoebe was nearly yelling and Paige realized that now was not the time to press the issue.

"Fine," she huffed, letting it drop, "Then what do we do?"

"We keep doing what we have been doing," replied Phoebe. "We may not have found out much but at least we have a basis to work from now."

"I guess. I just get the feeling that I am missing something. There is something in the way he acts, the way he moves, that reminds me of someone I knew. I worked with a lot of different people, parents and children, and I know I would be able to figure _something_ out if I could just guess what I was missing," Paige stated unhappily.

Both sisters were lacking patience but Paige was almost ready to go on a true Halliwell rant about this one man that they could not figure out.

"Phoebe, he is beyond neurotic, he is completely and utterly paranoid. He is always searching for some kind of threat and completely convinced that said threat is going to come with his next breath and I just can't understand it. I know he could be hundreds of years old but he looks like a kid playing a game and sometimes I wonder if he isn't just plain crazy." Paige stood up and started to pace again, running her hands through her hair as she walked.

Phoebe moved as if to join her before she stopped, looking shocked and slightly horrified, as if she had just realized something terrible yet important.

"What's wrong Phoebe? What happened?" Paige asked looking around with a tinge of fear even as she rushed over to sit beside her sister.

"That's it Paige. That's our problem," said Phoebe quietly, looking dazed.

"What? What do you mean?" Paige was utterly confused with her sisters sudden revelation.

"He is part witch Paige," at her sisters continued look of confusion Phoebe clarified, "That means that he never died. He truly is just a kid. He can't be older than 25. We have been acting like he is a full white lighter but he isn't. He is just a kid, stuck alone in a different time. He would be around Wyatt's age ," she repeated in a whispered and wondering tone.

Paige just looked to Phoebe with an expression of dawning realization.

In the future it was a well known fact that Halliwell was unbreakable. Torture, emotion and the day to day reality of living in a never ending war zone could not break him. He was an unstoppable force, unpredictable and occasionally invisible. True jade could not be scratched by the sharpest of knives and his eyes reflected that quality. If anyone in the resistance, any free being left in the world, saw Halliwell break than that would be the moment the war was over, the war was lost.

Chris Halliwell knew this and knew this well. For years he had led and although he may not have won he did not lose. The facts were that life was hard, but Halliwell was harder. With that fact comes the understanding that sometimes the worst torture, the hardest hell, is knowing that there is no end in sight to the day to day life of war.

It was hard to live in this world of peace knowing what no one should know. Knowing that the war was coming, that death and destruction were coming and knowing that someday soon all those things hidden from the light would crawl from the places they were born to call forth the end of peace, was hell.

Chris Halliwell knew all of this, had if fact lived and breathed all of this. It did not break him, his spirit nor his facade of unemotional strength. That was why, in this moment, he was ashamed to think that he was on the edge of screaming out in frustration.

Information was scarce, comforts were non-existent and he was alone. The comfort thing wasn't to bad, it was a common thing for him but it was an annoyance when everyone around him could experience them while he was forbidden. The lack of information was downright frightening. Where before he could bribe and frighten the demon's in the underworld until they told him what he needed to know, Drux's resistance had been the start of something that was becoming terribly common. Others probably would not notice but certain clans and alliances were beginning to shut them selves off from outsiders, even the lower level ones. His original glamour was compromised, along with quite a few others and he was running out of sources. He seemed to have to torture someone until they were nothing more than and bleeding snivelling mass before they would give him the smallest scrap of information, which meant he couldn't go back to question anybody. It was hard to get information from a pile of ash. Which brought him to his final problem. He didn't care so much about being alone in the normal way but he was running out of ideas. Normally the Council had some kind of idea that would spark an idea with someone else until they had a plan that he could work with. He found himself trying to create their voices in his head just so he could think of something, anything useful to do. And even though he had no plans, it seemed that running around trying to create one, took more time than actually having one. He didn't even have time to wonder whether trying to create voices in his head made him insane. Christopher Halliwell, leader of the resistance-yet-to-be-created, was in the middle of a gods-damned cluster-fuck with no foreseeable way out.

Piper, as a mother and as a Charmed One, knew exactly what each yell and scream going on in her house meant. So when she heard the faint noises signalling screaming from downstairs she only tensed for a moment before shaking her head at her sister's antics. Sometimes it was surprising to her how easily she had let go of being the middle sister, the peacemaker. There had been tension between her sisters for over a week now and if this was the only way for them to work it out than she wouldn't interfere.

As she finished changing Wyatt's diaper she called, "Leo," and waited for him to orb in. Although she would miss him she was grateful to her father for taking Wyatt for the weekend. Things hadn't been going her way for quite some time and some days she just felt like having a temper tantrum and making everyone behave the way that they should. It would be good to have a break and Leo had promised to bring Wyatt over to Victor's house so that she could truly enjoy her free weekend.

"Leo," she tried again. The man had been her husband and she knew that if she really wanted him to show up at one o'clock on a Friday then she was going to have to remember for him.

Dancing blue and white lights flowed down from the ceiling accompanied by a familiar jingle just as she was about to call him for the third time. She shot her ex-husband an frustrated glance before she gave her attention to the child in her arms.

"Now you be good for Grandpa, no orbing unless there is danger and make sure you listen to him, okay Wyatt?" She said, ending on a question to make sure that he was listening to her.

Wyatt just smiled and nodded but she could tell that he understood and would at least try to listen… for the first five minutes at least.

Turning to Leo she opened her mouth to give instructions but closed it before speaking a word when confronted with his raised eyebrow. Although they were on good terms being separated was hard on both of them and they tended to take it out on each other at the worst moments.

After kissing Wyatt goodbye one last time she handed him over to his father and watched them orb out together.

**A/N The next update will be up before the weekend and as always reviews and ideas are appreciated. **


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